A Refreshing Beginning

Rhys Bramblethorpe

Aloysius Thompson

In early 1864, a young Welshman named Rhys Bramblethorpe and his associate, New Yorker Aloysius P. Thompson, left their posts at McSorely’s Ale House in New York City in search of the perfect place to start a brewery of their own. The story goes that they headed into the frontier in search of the purest natural spring water with which to craft their brew. While we recognize today that it is unlikely that two men from an urban setting would have been able to set off without a trained guide on this nation-wide taste test without acquiring diphtheria, in each legend there is a grain of truth. However it came to pass, by August of that year, Bramblethorpe and Thompson found themselves in Thakiwaki Territory, home to some of the finest natural springs in America. A location for B&T Brewery had been identified, and thus Beertown was born. As the Civil War came to a close, soldiers looking for a new life began pouring into the burgeoning industrial village. The pure spring water and the good business sense of the founders ensured that Beertown beer was a household name by the mid-1870s. Though the brewery closed in 1994, the innovative spirit that has fueled Beertown for nearly 150 years remains alive today.